Raise Denials, Hearings Frustrate Constables

CANTON—Pat Jordan and C.B. Wiley are fed up with being turned down.

The two Van Zandt County constables have tried in vain for years to make the county see their reasoning for salary increase requests. The latest chapter in their growing frustration happened late last week in a crowded salary grievance committee hearing.

On Tuesday in a county commissioners’ court session, Precinct 2 Constable Wiley was granted a raise of just over $1,300 from his current salary to $33,500.

However, Wiley contends that is a severely insufficient amount to do his job, which includes patrolling, case investigation, servicing of court papers and drug law enforcement, just to name a few.

Wiley had asked the salary grievance committee — a nine-member body made up of six elected officials and three randomly chosen citizens from the county’s ex-grand juror list — for $43,100.

"We’ve got eight county elected officials who are going to receive that much by next year," Wiley said in a telephone interview last Friday.

His statement referred to the four precinct commissioners, district clerk, county clerk, tax collector and county treasurer positions.

Wiley was present Tuesday to learn the outcome of the court’s decision and was none too pleased, stating after the vote that he was "working almost for nothing for the county."

Precinct 4 Constable Jordan will get a small raise as well from his current $30,294 to $32,181. The same $1,887 raise is being provided for the constables in Precincts 1 and 3 as part of the county’s new step-based salary scale.

However, Jordan had requested $36,400, or about $17.50 per hour.

In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Jordan heavily criticized the salary grievance process, saying the committee should not include elected officials.

Jordan said that because one of the elected officials on the committee, tax assessor/collector Vicki Looney, did not show up for the hearing, it prevented any chance of a unanimous vote for either his or Wiley’s salary increase request.

A unanimous vote by the committee in favor of a salary request would bypass the need for commissioners’ court approval.

"The whole thing got on my last nerve," Jordan said about the Aug. 21 hearing in the district courtroom. "C. B. and I both understood we were already hung out to dry at that point."

"I have asked for them (commissioners’ court) to appoint an all-public salary grievance board. There should not be any elected officials on it," he added.

Jordan also said he is puzzled by the sudden reversal of support on the salary grievance committee when compared to his hearing in 2007. His salary request this year failed by a 2-5 margin with Van Zandt County Sheriff R.P. "Pat" Burnett abstaining.

"What really amazes me is the same members on the board last year voted 8-1 for me and the commissioners turned me down," Jordan said.

The vote and some of the comments by commissioners and committee members was "more than a man can handle," Jordan said in explaining the emotional turn his comments took in the hearing.

"I told them basically they didn’t have any guts and if the commissioners were in my shoes, they wouldn’t be so commissioner-friendly," he said.

"Maybe I have offended them, but it’s nothing personal. I personally think they don’t want to offend the commissioners if they vote for me because maybe their salary structure will get messed up if they say anything," Jordan said.

Wiley also criticized the county about its hiring of a consultant to provide average county official salary data based on a review of 19 counties between 50,000-90,000 in population.

"They didn’t consult me. I’ve been doing this (law enforcement) for 45 years, so who would be better qualified?" Wiley said the day following the salary grievance committee hearing.

Jordan went one step further, calling the study "a bunch of crap."

"They paid thousands to some guy from Bell County to justify them all a raise, when they could have called TAC (Texas Association of Counties) and got the same information for free," he said.

Van Zandt County Judge Rhita Koches and the four precinct commissioners were out of town this week at a Texas Association of Counties seminar in Austin and could not be reached for comment.

In Tuesday’s commissioners’ court meeting, Precinct 1 Commissioner Ricky LaPrade, who made the unanimously approved motion for the raise, defended the salary grievance committee’s decision for a small raise for Wiley.

"We had a salary committee that worked very hard on this issue and determined the four commissioners should be paid the same and the four constables should be paid the same," he said. "I don’t think we need to get off the salary increase plan.

"I have all the respect in the world for Constable Wiley. He does a great job," LaPrade added.

Both Wiley and Jordan say they wonder why that respect does not translate into being given the salaries they feel they have earned and deserve.

"I guess nobody owes me anything," Jordan said, "but the citizens know the job I’ve done and the majority of them feel I should get more than what I am getting paid."